Four Decades OF Sonic Youth’s S/T
Photo: Al Arthur
Recorded between December of 1981 and January of 1982, shortly after forming from the radical remnants of previous incarnations like Male Bonding, Red Milk, and the Arcadians in the summer of ‘81, Sonic Youth wasted no time getting to work on their monumental debut EP shortly after connecting with guitar guru Lee Renaldo, and American actor, writer, musician, photographer, and all around savant of the times, Richard Edson. A critical cast of creative characters in the art of alchemy, and murderous musicians of melodic madness, the quartet set the town ablaze, while simultaneously standing tall against a burning backdrop that showcased some of New York’s true terrors. This was the same year that saw 120,000 reported robberies, which was a historic high, and 2,166 murders, making daily life for city dwellers of any community, and borough, dangerous, or challenging to say the least. These existential elements only added to the cultural chemistry and liberating layout of the band, especially in the early days, as they navigated the experimental ecosystem of the New Wave order. With the harmonious help of the late great avant-garde composer, guitarist, and tonal trailblazer Glenn Branca, releasing the group’s debut on his label Neutral, Sonic Youth captured the mysterious metallic melodies of Henry Flynt, Suicide’s“Frankie Teardrop”, and several other contemporaries that can be found on Brian Eno’s legendary comp “No New York”, while adding their own testimonial twist that still radiates the society’s subconscious forty plus years later.
“If you listen to that first Sonic Youth album, every song on it had a different beat because I was focused on how experimental, how different can I get, and sort of honing in on a rock beat, which I realized at our last gig at the Mudd Club, I don’t even know when that was, I think it was winter ’82, maybe that I was like, well fuck it, let me just crash and bash like a rock drummer, and I had so much fun, but that was the last time I played with them.”
Recorded at Plaza Sound, Radio City Music Hall, engineered by Don Hünerberg, who has worked with the likes of Blondie and the Ramones, and released forty-two years ago this month, the EP explodes with the epic opener"The Burning Spear" and collides with the seven-minute instrumental ender "The Good and the Bad." While providing a ritualistic rhythm before trailing off into the diabolical distance, where car alarms blare for an eternity, and the smog of society hangs low on the shoulders of the passerby below, Sonic Youth splinters from the depths of their peers and directly into the eager ears of the punk population. Both creatively complicated and revolutionarily raw, the band combines the esoteric efforts of spiritual simplicity, expressing the atmospheric anger and artistic anxiety aimed at Reagan and the growing concern of the AIDS epidemic across the album’s incredibly intense interior and extraordinary exterior. It’s an honest yet obvious statement that Sonic Youth’s debut, in particular, is overlooked compared to later works like “EVOL”, “Sister”, and “Daydream Nation”, but there’s something sophisticated and sacred that needs to be studied about this brave body of work. What’s your favorite song on the album? We’ll answer that for you, it’s "The Burning Spear"!
